Chapter 96: A Sudden Killing Intent

Chen Wenqi watched Li Wensheng with extreme caution. After seizing his hand at Huaxing Trading Company, she never let go once, and she also ordered five men to keep close around the two of them, while more than a dozen others stood in a wider ring a little farther away.

It was like three concentric circles of protection: Chen Wenqi in the innermost ring, the five men in the second, and the dozen or so in the third.

Even after they left Huaxing Trading Company, Li Wensheng kept searching for a chance to escape, but after more than ten minutes, he still had found none.

"Stop looking. You won't find an opening."

Li Wensheng drew his gaze back and turned his head toward Chen Wenqi.

Looking at her delicate profile, he paused slightly, then could not help asking, "Are you able to see through everyone so easily, or only me?"

Chen Wenqi glanced at him, then turned her eyes forward again and answered with quiet pride, "If I want to, I can guess what anyone is thinking."

Li Wensheng felt a trace of disappointment. Suddenly, he whirled his head to look toward a fork in the road ahead and to the right.

His expression changed at once. He gripped Chen Wenqi hard, forced his way through the second ring of protection, and ducked behind a pillar under the awning of the street on the left.

The moment Li Wensheng pulled Chen Wenqi behind the pillar, before anyone else could react, a sudden burst of fierce gunfire erupted. Several of Chen Wenqi's men dropped instantly.

Amid the panicked screams of nearby pedestrians, the rest scattered in all directions, scrambling for cover.

Behind the pillar, Chen Wenqi peeked out at the opposite side and saw dozens of people there.

She drew back and turned to say, "Why aren't you making a move? They're definitely after you. Once they finish us off, you'll die too."

Leaning against the pillar, Li Wensheng showed no intention of acting. Hearing Chen Wenqi's words, he gave a slight shake of his head and said in a grave voice, "I know they're coming for me, but I don't have a chance to move."

"What do you mean?" Chen Wenqi asked with a frown.

"If I go out now, the four sniper rifles in the third-floor windows across the street will open fire on me."

When he had dragged Chen Wenqi over here, Li Wensheng had glanced back and clearly seen four people in the third-floor windows raising sniper rifles.

Chen Wenqi leaned out to look and, seeing that there really were four snipers in the windows on the opposite third floor, immediately pulled back and looked at Li Wensheng again. "Your cover's been blown?"

"No, but this group has to be Japanese agents."

Li Wensheng could not figure out what had gone wrong. Earlier, at the Charming Melody Dance Hall, a Japanese spy had already asked him whether he was Li Wensheng. Now, without warning, another wave of Japanese agents had appeared, intent on killing him.

But he was certain his identity had not been exposed; otherwise, there would not have been only several dozen Japanese agents coming for him.

The gunfire did not stop. Chen Wenqi swept a frantic glance around, and seeing that nearly half the people she had brought were already dead, she found the nearest wall and the closest clothing shop entrance were both dozens of meters away.

Her heart sank. She looked deeply at Li Wensheng and said in a low voice, "I'll draw them off. You run."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Chen Wenqi raised her pistol, stepped out from behind the pillar, and opened fire at the third-floor windows across the way.

Li Wensheng had not expected her to rush out and draw the enemy fire. By the time he reacted, Chen Wenqi had already started shooting.

While firing, Chen Wenqi moved toward another pillar.

Of the four snipers opposite, three ignored her shots entirely and kept their sights trained on the pillar where Li Wensheng was hiding; only one turned to deal with Chen Wenqi.

After Chen Wenqi fired two shots, a heavier, duller report echoed out, clearly not the sharp crack of a pistol.

Though Chen Wenqi was moving, the sniper's marksmanship was excellent. One shot struck her right shoulder.

Seeing Chen Wenqi hit, Li Wensheng, who had been thinking desperately about how to break the deadlock since she drew the enemy's fire, could not worry about anything else. He pulled two pistols from the system space and stepped out from behind the pillar.

His firing was extremely fast. In the instant he emerged, he killed two snipers.

But the snipers opposite were all highly skilled. As Li Wensheng killed the two men, another sniper fired at him with a loud report.

Before the bullet arrived, a surge of danger jolted through him. He dodged hastily, but the shot still struck his left arm.

Pain exploded through him. His left hand loosened, and the gun in it fell.

At that moment, crack!

Li Wensheng quickly used his right hand to shoot and kill that sniper. Then, following the renewed warning of danger in his chest, he twisted sharply to avoid the bullet fired by the sniper who, after he came out, had ignored Chen Wenqi and turned his gun on him.

As he shifted position and raised his gun toward the last sniper, Li Wensheng's senses again flared with a fierce sense of mortal danger.

But in this situation, he could not dodge. If he did not eliminate that sniper, he would have no way to escape.

After firing, Li Wensheng quickly threw himself toward another pillar at the side, but he was still struck in the left waist by a bullet.

After landing, he sprang up in one swift motion and suddenly turned to look left.

The bullet that had just hit his left waist had come from the left side.

There, at some point, a group of people had appeared, and they were rapidly taking down Chen Wenqi's men.

At the back of that group stood a man staring hard at Li Wensheng, his gaze filled with such intensity it was as if he were looking at the man who had murdered his father.

This left Li Wensheng somewhat bewildered. When had he ever become enemies with this man?

Though his mind was briefly blank, his hands did not stop. Crack, crack, crack, he fired rapidly.

With marksmanship so extraordinary it seemed almost supernatural, Li Wensheng used only a single pistol to bring down several men in the blink of an eye, forcing the others to hurry for cover.

Once they were behind cover, they began to fight back, but the moment any of them exposed themselves, crack, they were instantly shot dead.

He had suppressed them, but Li Wensheng felt no joy at all.

He had been hit twice. The shot to his left arm had struck bone, leaving his left hand unable to exert any strength, and the wound at his waist would not stop bleeding.

As for the people Chen Wenqi had brought, only a few were left. Yet with the men who had appeared earlier, plus the group that had suddenly attacked from the side, there were still at least forty or fifty of them.

With only one hand able to fire, and blood still pouring from his waist, he simply could not deal with them. If this dragged on, he would die here.

And the most fatal part was that he could not even run.

Ahead, to the right, and to the left were all Japanese agents. Behind him was a wall of houses, but the nearest shop entrance was still more than a hundred meters away.

Crack, crack. After killing two people who had popped up from behind the wall for cover, the magazine ran dry.

Li Wensheng's left arm could not bear any force. Under the present circumstances, reloading would take far too long. Without continuous suppressive fire, the people hiding behind pillars and walls would surely all rush out and shoot him.

But he did not even reload. His right hand loosened, the pistol dropped, and he shouted urgently, "Throw it!"

Chen Wenqi, who had already moved a short distance ahead, immediately tossed her pistol toward Li Wensheng's right hand, then dropped into a half-crouch to grab the pistol he had let fall.

The two of them simultaneously seized the pistol in midair. Li Wensheng quickly fired and took care of the man who had just shown himself, while Chen Wenqi rapidly changed the magazine.

While reloading, Chen Wenqi also glanced around. Seeing that only two or three of the people she had brought remained, and that the Japanese spies on the right and in front were beginning to close in on them.